Justin Stone Speaks on T’ai Chi Chih (November 2023, Part 1)

Editor’s Note: This spoken word CD is available on .

TRACK 3

Many of you listening have seen karate experts break through thick boards with one slash of the hands, uttering a shout, “Ahh,” to bring the Chi from where it is stored below the navel. No ordinary strength could perform this feat. And the hands would crack up if it was possible. Rather it is the power of accumulated Chi that enables adepts to perform such feats. Though great strength is involved it is paradoxical that T’ai Chi Chih (TCC) must be done softly and without effort.

Teachers continually harp on softness and continuity. If there’s tension the Chi will not flow freely through the meridian channels, which will contract. So, there must be an effortless effort. If one imagines he is swimming through very heavy air, or that he is moving slow motion in a dream, he or she will get the idea. It is actually more important to know how to move than to know what moves to make.

In the 13th Century the great T’ai Chi Ch’uan Master Chang San-Feng described the way to move by saying, “In any action the body should be light and alert. Coordinated like strung pearls. The Chi, vital energy, should be actively excited but the Shen spirit must remain calm internally.” From this we learn that all T’ai Chi is essentially spiritual in nature. Meaning it is in accord with reality. This should give you something challenging to think about.

If it seems to you that I am enthusiastic about this subject, you are right. I know that this practice has done much for me. And I have heard countless times what it has done for others. I am grateful to have been the channel through which it came into the world. If you can understand that everything physical is crystallization of the spiritual state, then it will be easy to comprehend the beautiful passage from the Lotus Sutra that says:

From the state of emptiness,

each man’s body is a body pervading the universe.

His voice is a voice filling the universe.

His life is a life without limit.

∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞ ∞

TRACK 4

Usually, I like to devote half of any lecture to a question-and-answer period so that I can know what the audience is thinking and what it is interested in knowing. I’m going to follow that custom now and ask for questions.

Editor’s Note: Justin often “calls on” people in the “audience.”

That lady over there has a question. She wants to know why it’s necessary to keep the concentration in the soles of the feet while doing T’ai Chi Chih.

Actually, there are three reasons. First, having a point of concentration keeps the mind from wandering and from having extraneous thoughts.

Second, the tan t’ien, the spot two inches below the navel, is the all-important place Chi is stored. It is the seed of intuition and the most important spot from the Chinese standpoint. In T’ai Chi Ch’uan the student is asked to keep his concentration in the tan t’ien, but this is very difficult and often interferes with breathing. The Tu Mu meridian channel that comes down the front, goes thru the tan t’ien and reaches the soles of the feet, called the Chu or bubbling spring. Therefore, by concentrating in the soles of the feet, we serve the same purpose. Bringing the Chi down to the tan t’ien by bringing it down to the soles of the feet. The Buddha once said that: “He who keeps his concentration in the soles of his feet while walking, while sitting, and while lying down can heal a thousand illnesses.”

Cont’d on page 12-13